Aurora borealis

Brown Shrike II

Returned to the island on Saturday morning to be met by JL (shrike-finder extraordinaire) to put me straight onto the 1st winter Citrine Wagtail. Had close but all too brief views of it perched on a nearby fence before the wretched little sod took flight and buggered off high to the north over some rooftops and out of sight.

The Brown Shrike has been seen on and off all week despite virtually constant high winds and heavy rain, and there were a few hardy and hopeful souls searching for it over the weekend. Frankly there was too much to do at home to go looking for it, but JL dropped over his in the hand photos (see below) to help recreate that fabulous warm glow that goes with being in-at-the-kill on any rarity, let alone such a stunner as this.

Am still kicking self that the Coolpix's battery was dead... let that be a lesson to get at least one other battery and always keep one charged. Talk about learning the hard way. Anyhow, JL's photos are dead good, so no harm done.

Finally, a text message received from one of the twitchers who came up from England for this bird:

"Thanks for the shrike - it was a fucking cracker!"

Says it all, really.

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Posted by Stercorarius at September 27, 2004 10:17 AM